1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an adjuster of a string-end-fixing portion of an article used for, for example, various kinds of clothing including shoes, tents, curtains, suspenders or the like.
2. Description of the Related Art
When walking or working in a farm in the rain, people often haul up bottoms of trousers. In a hot day, people often haul up sleeves of a shirt or a jacket. However, it is difficult to keep the bottoms of the trousers or the sleeves of the shirt or the jacket hauled up if no way to maintain them in such a state is adapted. Conventionally, one end of a short tape is sewed on each of bottom edges of the trousers or each of sleeve edges of the shirt or the jacket and a male or a female member of a snap button is attached at a position where each of the bottoms or the sleeves is hauled up. When hauling up the bottoms or the sleeves, a female or a male member of the snap button attached to a free end of the tape is engaged with the male or the female member of the snap button attached to the bottom or the sleeve so as to maintain a hauled up state. However, in a case of using the snap button, since an attaching position of the snap button is fixed, a hauled up position of the bottoms or the sleeves is inevitably fixed and it is difficult to adjust the position.
The above-described problem is solved by an adjuster of a string-end-fixing portion disclosed, for example, by an International application publication No. WO 03/082041 A2 that enables an adjustment of the fixing portion of the string end in a various embodiments by operating a slider. As a basic construction, the adjuster comprises a slider comprising an upper plate, a lower plate and a post portion connecting the upper and lower plates at a center portion thereof with a predetermined gap, and a pair of long tapes each of which has an element row constituted of a plurality of elements that are attached along an opposing side edge of the tape with a predetermined pitch and able to engage and disengage, and the element row being inserted into the gap of the slider. The slider has a structure integrated in such a state where rear mouths in an ordinary slider of a slide fastener are formed in front and rear portions in a direction of a fixing position of a string end and shoulder mouths of an ordinary slider of a slide fastener collide each other. Furthermore, an attaching portion for a string or the like is provided at a lower face of the lower plate for fixing an end of the string while the other end of the string is fixed to an adjusting portion of a fixing position of a string end of an attached edge portion of a cap, an adjusting portion of position of a belt of a bag, an adjusting portion of a width of a back of a grove, an adjusting portion of a fixing position of a shoe string for tightening or the like. The tape with the elements corresponds to a stringer of an ordinary slide fastener.
When the tape with the elements of the adjuster of the string-end-fixing portion is attached to adjusting operation portion for moving the fixing portion of the string end disposed at a portion of the above-mentioned various articles by sewing, and the slider is slid along the element row so as to change a position of the slider, a position of the end of the string or the like attached to the slider is changed and a string-end-fixing portion where the other end of the string or the like is fixed and considered as a second position of any one of the articles is moved and adjusted. Although the slider is slid, the element rows are always engaged before and after the slider, since the both end portions of the slider in a direction of the string-end-fixing portion is formed as rear mouths unlike the ordinary slide fastener.
As aforementioned, according to the adjuster of the string-end-attaching portion of the article disclosed by the International application publication No. WO 03/082041 A2, by sliding the slider along the element row of the tape with the elements, the string-end-fixing portion of the article as the second position is moved to a desired position. Although the International application publication No. WO 03/082041 A2 describes that it is possible to use two sliders, it does not disclose any specific structure. Therefore, it is considered that one slider is used to move the string-end-fixing portion of the article in an actual embodiment. However, the single slider tends to have a complicated shape and structure, which requires complicated processes and long time for manufacturing.
In either case, according to the International application publication No. WO 03/082041 A2, the string or the like, one end of which is attached to the string-end-fixing portion disposed at the lower plate of the slider is generally disposed on an inner face of the article. If the string or the like is exposed on the inner face of the article, it tends to entangle a part of a body of a person wearing or using the article, which may damage the article or make the person fall in a worst case.
In order to prevent this interference of the string or the like disposed on the inner face of the article, as also described in the International application publication No. WO 03/082041 A2, the string or the like is inserted into a string guide cloth in a tunnel shape so as to cover the string or the like, thereby preventing an interfering movement of the string or the like. However, if the string or the like comes off the slider or cut off halfway, the end of the string or the like must be attached to the string-end-fixing portion of the slider again or the string must be replaced. In these cases, since the lower face of the slider is also in the string guide cloth of the tunnel shape, and further both front and rear ends of the slider have a same structure as that of a rear mouth of a slider for an ordinary slide fastener as aforementioned, the element rows before and after the slider are in a engaged state and closed. As a result, it is impossible to attach the end of the string or replace the string.